Tete-A-Tete with SOUL

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Did you know… and the saga continues!!!

“Did you know…Mr. Sharma’s daughter ran away with a guy from her college!”

“Did you know… last night a lot of noise was coming from the Verma family’s house…they must be arguing about… I told you that day…remember?”

“Did you know…?”

Ok…sounds like something is being asked… or rather told. Whatever, but personal information about other people has been spread successfully?

Man is a social animal. (I read this in good old school days. It was only then I came to know that man is an animal.) He likes to stay in groups, talk, and have a good time with his fellow beings.Man loves to speak, to share his views, to advice (this he does for free without any hidden charges, whether it is required or not) and this has unconsciously given rise to one of his habit – gossiping.

(After writing above paragraph on “man”, I started feeling like an ALIEN from some another planet. Too much of television can make you feel you are on MARS – and I meant Nat Geo stuff about some space shuttle landing and gathering information. This has nothing to do with X-Files. Pun intended.)

Nothing in itself is good or bad, same goes for gossiping. People might argue this…go ahead…freedom of speech (I am from India.)

Gossiping is an art – the art of spreading information – that too, using a natural media – mouth.But it is a demanding art. You have to be very vigilant, know almost everything that is going on –at least in the neighborhood. It’s like being an unpaid detective, an unsung local Sherlock Holmes. The database must be capable of storing huge data, mostly unformatted, and efficient enough to handle numerous updates. (Example of how your job can affect you)

Excluding the fun part, talking about personal life of someone else isn’t that good a hobby.To talk socially without exchanging too much information is fine. Speaking what hurts somebody doesn’t sound that pleasant…does it? It might at times not be bad to gossip, but to confabulate is certainly not good. Truth always finds its way out.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Why did the chicken cross the road? (wdtcctr)

I heard the phrase “wdtcctr” first time on Cartoon Network. (I am quite a couch potato and end up watching even Tiny TV :P, courtesy – my little cousin)

The phrase sounded very interesting and at the same time very questioning. Initially, I believed it was related to some cartoon. To my surprise, it wasn’t. (My Little Cousin made it a point that I get my basics right)

Then all was forgotten. It was few days back that I encountered the same phrase, this time on the internet while usual browsing. This fictitious (?) question had probable answers …I believe they are fictitious ones…they are humorous and exhibit the nature of the individual who is supposed to have answered them.

I have been thinking…what must have been the origin of this phrase? Did any one ever ask this question? Why was this question raised? Is this a rhetorical question? Oops…so many questions about a single question!!!

I did try to find out the origin of the phrase (or question, ok…now I am a bit confused) but haven’t found anything yet. So I have come up with a story to satisfy my curiosity.

Long time ago (don’t think when…this is the way stories are supposed to begin) a couple owned poultry. They were happy with all their chickens. (This is what I mean by originality of ideas) Suddenly one day, one of their chickens died in a road accident. The chicken was crossing the road when it collided with a car and died on the spot.

The matter was taken to the court and the lawyer ended up asking this question. (Who else do you think can raise such an “intelligent”(?) question). To save the convict anything can be asked. After a lot of argument, the poor couple decided to accept the money the convict was ready to give them, provided they blamed the chicken and not him.

So the case ended - the couple said that the chicken crossed the road because it thought jaywalking is illegal and so it didn’t wait for the signal to turn red.

Friday, May 13, 2005

On being a Pessimist…

Every coin has two sides. People might argue that being a pessimist is bad…but wait…it can be good too. Some facts to put forth the “brighter” side of being a pessimist can be stated.

A pessimist is never disappointed. When I expect the worst and it happens, I should in fact feel happy…what I predicted occurred. (On second thoughts, should I take up astrology as a career?)Studies say people are depressed most of the times because of unfulfilled expectations. Arre…when you don’t expect anything from anyone or you expect the worst, no man (or for that matter even woman) in this world can disappoint you (They say it’s Kalyug, times are bad. So it’s good to keep low, rather no, expectations).

See, if you are not disappointed, you won’t get annoyed about things being wrong, people being selfish, life being tough…and blah-blah-blu-blu-blee-blee (the usual…ab waqt pehle jaise nahin rahaan stuff). You’ll be a happier chap – you know worst will occur, so some of you might even go for proactive strategy – to reduce the jhatka (zor ka jhatka dheere se lagega pessimist ko).

Who says the “light at the end of the tunnel” always resembles “hope”. Give a thought, why can’t it be – “the light of the oncoming train.”

A pessimist is a man who looks both ways before crossing a one-way street. So what, have you seen the number of rash drivers on the road? – such careless drivers end up killing people sleeping on the pavement at night (Resemblance to anybody…for that matter famous anybody… dead or alive is purely coincidental).

Antonio Gramsci (Italian intellectual and politician) said: “I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will”. So if you want to prove to people that you are intelligent, tell them you are a pessimist. (Provided the people you tell this know Antonio)

Borrow money from a pessimist – he never expects it back. (Can anyone give me some information about any pessimist he/she knows…I am planning to buy latest mobile that can store video, songs, obviously has camera…and hey they have added that you can still make calls)

A pessimist is someone who looks at the land of milk and honey and sees only calories and cholesterol. Ok…fine then…pessimist is more health conscious than the normal people. (I wonder whether pre-requisite to being a physician is to be a born pessimist. Many people will realize they have taken up a wrong career. They could have landed up being a physician)

The difference between an optimist and a pessimist is that an optimist laughs to forget, but a pessimist forgets to laugh. This means pessimists are forgetful by nature. You must have heard – to forgive is to forget. How nice…pessimists are forgivers…world needs people with big hearts, doesn’t it?

Too much of anything is bad. So don’t end up being a pessimist only. (Sometimes people end up following everything they read.) Be a bit optimist as well. Lead a balanced life.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Chatting

I never knew that my world would change all of a sudden, that too, because of the internet. It might sound strange as to how the change began.

The reason was ‘posting resumes’. Sounds funny but that’s the truth. As I was on the look out for a job (thank God I waited for my engineering to get complete, else for some one like me who always wanted to work in a MNC, the wait was killing), one of the things added to my daily chore was – mailing resume to companies.

Here, I would like to thank the ‘bandwidth’ that we get to surf the net. Had it not been time-consuming for the resume to get attached to the mail and then be sent, I would have never looked for ‘in-between’ activity. No prizes for guessing the activity – it is chatting.

I always knew that I could hold long conversations in almost any topics – that is because I believe people are source of knowledge as well. A meaningful conversation with a person on a topic is far more beneficial than reading a book on the same topic. Practical experience is what matters. It’s like you cannot learn swimming by reading a book on “How to learn swimming” you have to get into the pool for that. Besides my friends always made sure I knew what I was - a ‘chatterbox’

Thus began my journey into the cyber world. Initially, it took a lot of time in deciding whom to actually chat with. But to my surprise, I found lot of engineers on-line and that really broke the ice. Talking with someone who is from your domain is always easier. Slowly but steadily I started making lot of chat friends, some who were studious, some who were nerds and some who were cool. It was amazing to know that most of them were introverts in ‘real’ life.

Chatting has given me new friends, people whom I haven’t seen but very close to my heart. It’s amazing how technology works. It has always been human nature to shy away from sharing the deep intricacies of the heart. I don’t know why people (including me) don’t find it too comfortable to share a lot of things with people who are around them. May be the fear of being ‘not understood’ or ‘misunderstood’ is the main reason.

I hope to continue chatting and making more and more friends. Chatting has added a whole new dimension in my life. All my chat friends, thank you for being there and hope we will meet face-to-face some day.